Data centers will operate to east and west of New Bedford

The growing data industry has reached the SouthCoast with the recent opening of the region's first data center in Fall River.

The growing data industry has reached the SouthCoast with the recent opening of the region's first data center in Fall River.

Started by Fall River natives, the newly opened Granite Block Global Data Center offers retail customers equipment space and bandwidth for rent in the company's former textile mill facility. The business provides power, cooling, and security for customers' server, storage, and networking equipment needs.

The excitement about Granite Block lies both in the establishment of a fast-growing industry in the city as well as its potential to transform under-utilized infrastructure — as in the city's former textile mills — into thriving companies.

Granite Block CEO Roland Patenaude said textile mills that were built to contain and operate heavy iron equipment have both the solid construction necessary and available power supply to make them ideal reuse sites for today's data centers.

"The thickness of the walls, structural support of floors, and height of ceilings are perfect. Plus they had massive electrical power," he said.

Patenaude believes at least two dozen mills in Fall River meet necessary requirements, which could prove useful as the need for server storage space grows.

"I predict in 15 years every mill building that is vacant right now will have data in it," Patenaude said at Granite Block's Nov. 1 opening.

Daniel Gallagher, CEO of the $40 million fiber optic project called Open Cape, agrees that data center demand is growing, particularly as cloud computing use intensifies. To be secure, Gallagher said, companies are being advised to have two sites for their data, each a replica of the other, that are located at least 100 miles apart.

And no longer is it just big financial or medical companies that need secure data sites, he said. "It has trickled down all the way to local government, school districts and small business."

Open Cape, which will begin building a 350-mile fiber optic network from the Cape to Providence and Brockton in January, is also excited about Granite Block's opening and has said it will base its Fall River regeneration site at the data center's facility.

The Cape-based project is also building its own data center in Barnstable, according to Gallagher, to be used to meet local needs. But where the Fall River business has 163,000 square feet of space available, the Cape data center will be only 2,500 square feet, he said. But Gallagher isn't worried about space. Should they run out, he said, he knows where to refer the extra business.

Changing patent laws will help the U.S. align its regulations with those of international communities, but may also cause financial headaches for small businesses. Businesses and startups eager to learn more about the changes attended a Nov. 9 workshop on the subject at the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center in Fall River.

In addition to a 15 percent fee increase, the new act will make patents "more readily open to attack even after the patent has been issued," according to Lillian Horwitz who led the ATMC workshop. These changes could test the resources of small companies who are trying to defend their patents, she said.

"The big criticism of this act is that it puts small businesses and small inventors at a disadvantage," because the entire process is more expensive, said Horwitz, who is an associate at Brown Rudnick LLP in Boston.

The new act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on Sept. 16.

Victor Stancovski, founder of ATMC-based Clean Energy Innovations, was one of the startups that attended the workshop because, he said, he has concerns about the act. Patents are central to CEI's business strategy, Stancovski said.

"The rules do not seem to favor small companies, which is not a positive thing for the country," said Stancovski. "One thing I'm most interested in is the fact that I do not see a speeding up of the patenting process. This is the biggest fallback from any viewpoint I can think of."

At Emma Marie's Grooming and Daycare in Mattapoisett, the atmosphere is not high-tech but the business' owner is. Surrounded by 30 or so dogs every day, owner Johnelle Roderick knows she needs to stay on her toes when it comes to banking services that can help her save time or money.

A First Citizens Federal Credit Union customer, Roderick does her business banking online and also visits the credit union's Mattapoisett branch. But she knows the future will be a mobile one and is looking to make the transition now.

"I just got an iPhone and I'm hoping to use the mobile app," said Roderick.

SouthCoast customers like Roderick are the early-adopters of mobile banking, and while out there, they are not yet the majority, according to local bankers.

Southeastern Massachusetts banks told the New England Business Bulletin recently that they see mobile banking as the next logical step for their already accepted and growing online banking platforms. But, some said, it's a service that is still gaining traction among customers and one that faces obstacles to full adoption.

Of four financial institutions surveyed, two are already offering mobile banking and two plan to add it reasonably soon.

Fairhaven-based First Citizens Federal Credit Union said it has seen a positive response to its mobile offerings and predicts usage will continue growing. Last fall, the credit union began a soft roll-out of what it calls its mobile banking "Triple Play."

Of the three services, the most basic lets members text message a key word to access information such as account balances and history. The next technological step-up is a browser-based option for Internet capable phones, and First Citizen's third and most complete option is a downloadable application encompassing the full range of mobile banking functionality.

Although the credit union has yet to compile statistics on early-adopters, Vice President of Retail and Marketing Frank Almeida called the initial response fantastic.

"Mobile adoption is phenomenal," he said. "Nobody goes anywhere without their phone anymore."

But others are seeing a slower response.

Taunton-based Bristol County Savings Bank Senior Vice President/retail operations, Julie Chapman, said one of the obstacles to mobile banking adoption has been the extra cost of cell phone data plans. BCSB offers a free phone application but to use it one must have a data plan.

"In this economy, people are reluctant to pay an extra $30 to $50 on top of their cell phone bill to access the Internet," said Chapman.

BankFive marketing specialist John Cooke agreed.

"We know that mobile banking is going to be extremely important to customer accessibility in the future," said Cooke. "As the technology improves and more people adopt smart phones it will become a natural extension of our online banking platform."

Look to the December issue of the New England Business Bulletin for the full report on these issues and more. Also featured this month is an innovative Cape-based business that believes its oil-absorbing product can help clean-up spills in New Bedford harbor, and a profile of a Fall River developer who is looking to revitalize the Spindle city one downtown building at a time.

Beth Perdue is the editor of the New England Business Bulletin. To read about these business topics and more, see the New England Business Bulletin on news stands Dec. 1. Or, go to www.nebulletin.com today. To subscribe to The Bulletin, e-mail Kati Sorensen at ksorensen@s-t.com.